Method for transferring slurry

Abstract

A method and a slurry tank system for transferring chromatography media slurry from a slurry tank (3) to a chromatography column (9), said method comprising monitoring the content of slurry in the slurry tank (3) during the transferring and controlling the transferring of the slurry to the column (9) in dependence of the content of slurry in the slurry tank (3).

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a filing under 35 U.S.C. 371 of international application number PCT / SE2014 / 051107, filed Sep. 26, 2014, which claims priority to Swedish application number SE 1351136-5, filed Sep. 30, 2013, the entire disclosures of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to a method for transferring chromatography media slurry from a slurry tank to a chromatography column, to a slurry tank system and to a control system in said slurry tank system.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Columns used in liquid chromatography typically comprise a tubular body enclosing a packed bed of porous chromatography medium through which a carrier liquid flows, with separation taking place by material collection between the carrier liquid and solid phase of the porous medium. Typically, the medium is enclosed in the column as a packed bed formed by consolidating a suspension of discret...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

Ensures efficient use of chromatography media, reduces the risk of air introduction, and achieves optimal bed compression, enhancing chromatographic performance and reducing media wastage.

Problems solved by technology

If the compression of the packed bed is too low then chromatographic separations performed on that bed suffer from “tailing” and, generally, such insufficiently compressed beds are unstable.

If the compression of the packed bed is too high then chromatographic separations performed by the bed suffer from “leading” and such over-compressed beds can affect throughput and binding capacity, and, in general, give much higher operating pressures.

However, packing such an optimally compressed bed of chromatography media in a chromatography column by manual means is not easy to accomplish in practice due to the fact that the quality of the final packed bed depends to a great extent on the skill of the operator.

If the measure of the slurry concentration is not exact (which is often the case because it is hard to measure the slurry concentration exactly) the volume of the slurry filled into the column is not optimal and the consolidated bed will settle at a bed height that was not expected (as calculated from the measured slurry concentration) and hereby the target packing factor can not be achieved at target bed height.

Furthermore, the operator also has to judge the point when the adapter starts compressing the bed.

Mistakes in the selection of any of the packing parameters normally lead to an under performing column.

Further, in columns equipped with a transparent tube it may be difficult, and in columns equipped with a non-transparent tube such as stainless steel it is impossible, to judge by eye when compression of the bed actually starts and a significant error at this point makes it impossible to obtain an optimally compressed bed.

There is also a risk of damaging the media and the column if the user takes wrong decisions.

Air in the column could adversely affect the chromatography performance.

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